CHP leader pleased at journalist Yalçın’s release

CHP leader pleased at journalist Yalçın’s release

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu today called journalist Soner Yalçın, who was released Dec. 27 pending trial in the OdaTV case, to express his pleasure at Yalçın’s release following a “682-day-long captivity that cannot be explained in a state governed by the rule of law,” the CHP’s press office announced.

In a separate comment on the release, Kılıçdaroğlu highlighted that fact that Yalçın was a journalist who dared to pay the price for properly performing his profession.

“He has paid the price and is still standing tall. He judged those who tried him. While paying the price at the Silivri Concentration Camp he didn’t bow,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, referring to the Silivri Prison complex in Istanbul where Yalçın was kept.

“He was standing tall when he entered prison and he is standing tall now too,” he said.

OdaTV, along with individual suspects like journalists Ahmet Şık, Nedim Şener and Yalçın, is accused of being a media organization working for the alleged Ergenekon gang.

Ergenekon is an alleged ultranationalist gang accused of plotting to overthrow the government by fomenting chaos in society. The case includes 275 suspects, 67 of whom are under arrest.